Amazon announces new wearable and services to try to make you fitter

Amazon has announced a new fitness band and a plethora of health services to go along with it. The new $79.99 Halo View includes a color AMOLED display (similar to Fitbit’s Charge 5) and a year of Amazon’s Halo membership, which is required to access the tracker’s more advanced analytics. Amazon’s also launching a Halo Fitness service, which provides workout videos similar to Apple Fitness Plus, and Halo Nutrition, which helps you meal plan.

Amazon is pitching the Halo View as a follow-up to its previous Halo Band fitness tracker, which didn’t include a screen. While the Halo View can gather a ton of biometric data, including heart rate, blood oxygen level, and skin temperature, it won’t be gathering your voice data like the previous generation did — according to CNET. Amazon has dropped the microphone that the original Halo used to monitor and analyze your emotions (though that feature will still be available in the Halo app). The Halo View can also do sleep tracking and alert you to text messages with a haptic motor.

The Halo View will come in three colors: black, green, and purple. You’ll also be able to buy additional bands (Amazon promises 15 colors of the sport bands), including ones made out of fabric, leather, and metal. Amazon says it has seven days of battery life and can be charged in 90 minutes, which is good, especially if you’ll be using it to track your sleep. Amazon says it’ll be shipping in time for the holidays.

The Halo Membership, which costs $3.99 a month after the first year that you get free with the View, will let you access advanced features like Amazon’s body composition scanning, activity points system, sleep analysis, Alexa integration (where Alexa devices can give you information that Halo collects), and more. It also gives you access to the new services Amazon announced today. Halo Fitness will include “hundreds” of cardio, strength, yoga, outdoor, and mobility classes, led by Halo coaches. Similar to Apple Fitness Plus, you’ll also be able to see metrics like heart rate from your Halo band overlaid on the video, though that functionality won’t be available when the service launches “later this year.”

Amazon’s Halo Nutrition includes a collection of recipes from companies like Weight Watchers, Lifesum, and the Amazon-owned Whole Foods and includes Alexa integration — if you’re planning on making a recipe, you can add the ingredients to your Alexa shopping list. Amazon says Halo Nutrition will be available in January 2022. Both Nutrition and Fitness will be available to customers who have the original Halo Band as well, as they’ll live in the Halo App.

If you want to hear more about all the devices Amazon announced today, you can read all our coverage of the event here.